What a wonderful time of the year! It's so fun to see the Christmas Trees, Lights, wreaths, decorations....it's all so exciting and fills the soul with excitement. The celebration of our Savior's birth, His life, example, lessons, Atonement, death, and Resurrection....It's one of those gifts we are given to evaluate our many blessings, the miracles of each gospel principle, and the miracle of life.
We were able to go to Temple Square to see the lights on Dec 20th. It was a warmer evening, however there was a mist that ended up in a drizzle, so our kiddos ended up getting sick. But everything was beautiful!! We watched the Nativity and tried to point out the animals, the star, and baby Jesus to Addie. LOL, it's kind of hard for kids to enjoy stuff outdoors because it gets so cold. And to enjoy the lights, it needs to be darker.....we left the house at 4:30, so not too late, but it gets cold so quick. We walked around the temple, and then ended the evening in the visiting center. We let Addie run around a bit and Joey was able to sit and stretch out while we stood in line to go up to see the Christis. When we got up there, the kids seemed to enjoy the lights, the stars, and looking up at the Christis. Addie seemed to enjoy that part and liked to look up at him. We are grateful for events like this that help us to focus our minds and spirits on the true meaning of Christmas.
The next day we went to the mall and got a picture of the kids sitting on Santa's lap. We had tried to do this at Carabella's but apparently Santa only visits 2 of the weekends. And we had missed this. But I just HAD to have the classic picture of babies sitting on Santa's lap. Joey was content to just sit there, but Addie was very upset, poor girl, poor Santa! LOL, hopefully she will understand who he is better next year. Maybe Joey won't be so content next year....we will see. Anyways, we let them play around on the playground there and then went home. Now we just patiently waited for Christmas to arrive. Unfortunately it landed on Daddy's 7 days on. I was planning on going to my parent's since Joe was working, but we all got a head cold, so I decided to stay home. I'm actually glad I did because since it was the holidays Joe worked early 6:30-4:30, so we got to spend a lot more time with him then if he worked his normal shift.
So for Christmas Eve when Daddy got home, we read Luke 2 while we all took part in the Nativity. We video taped it, so I think it worked out well. Joey was baby Jesus, Addie was the Angel, Daddy was Joseph, and Mommy was Mary. It's always fun to try to get that done every year. It's a tradition in many families, and growing up we did it for quite awhile. I plan to do the same.
We opened up our pj's from Grandma and Grandpa Hebdon. Addie got cute turquoise with owls, moons, and stars onsie pjs with the footies. Joey got cute grey with baseball memorabilia onsie pjs with the footies too. We LOVE their pj's they give the kids every year. They are so warm and perfect for Christmas Eve. It's a tradition that we did as kids, and my dad's family did growing up too.
The next day we waited until dad got off in the evening to open the gifts. We were all very spoiled!!
Addie: Vacuum from Santa; Green Christmas Dress, Play Dough, alphabet magnets, coloring books, Mr. Potato Head, white fluffy blanket with pink and turquoise elephants from mommy and daddy; Peanuts memory game from Joey;
Joey: Little People Farm and animals from Santa; stuffed horse, a tower that balls fall down tier to tier, fuzzy shirt and pants, fuzzy navy blue blanket from mommy and daddy; shapes in a wooden wagon from Addie.
Together: 2 books from mommy and daddy, portable DVD's for traveling and goodies from Santa; soft stuffed polar and panda bear with matching books from the Bare's (who had our family this year).
Mommy and Daddy: Lap Top from Santa; and a 6 day East Caribbean Cruise in April from each other (including birthdays and anniversary gifts!! We got a great black Friday deal and free miles for the flights, so we decided we were going to spoil ourselves).
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